Živnostenská banka

Živnostenská banka, a.s.

Former type	Public
Industry	Financial services
Successor	UniCredit Bank Czech Republic
Founded	1868
Defunct	2006
Headquarters	Prague, Czech Republic
Key people	Ing. Jiří Kunert (CEO)
Products	Banking, asset management, leasing and factoring
Owner	UniCredit
Number of employees	About 700

Živnostenská banka (also known under acronyms ŽB or ZIBA) was a major commercial bank operating in the Czech Republic. In 2002 it became a member of the Italian UniCredit Group. In 2006 it was merged with HVB Bank and the new merged bank was renamedUniCredit Bank Czech Republic.

Živnostenská banka was established in 1868 as a joint stock company focusing on the financing of Czech small and medium–sized enterprises (SMEs). It was the first bank in the Austro-Hungarian Empire to be financed entirely by Czech capital, and had as its aim supporting the development of newly established Czech businesses. The bank also sought the deposits of small savers: tradesmen and owners of small Czech companies. ZIBA became the umbrella organization of a network of small Czech savings and loan associations. Prior to the World War I, ZIBA took a minority holding in Serbian Credit Bank. Just before the outbreak of World War I, ZIBA had 1,068 employees, 11 branches in Bohemia and Moravia, and branches in Vienna, Cracow, Lviv, and Trieste. At that time ZIBA alone accounted for almost a third of the total capital of the Czech banking system. After the formation of the Czechoslovak Republic in 1918, ZIBA grew rapidly because of its role as the new state's key bank.

The Nostrification Law of 1920 forced joint-stock companies to transfer their head offices to the territory of the new state where they had their factories and plants. This law protected Czech banks from foreign competition. ZIBA benefited enormously as it changed its strategy to one of providing loans to large industrial companies. In 1922 ZIBA established a branch in London. The bank fostered mergers among large Czech industrial corporations (for example the creation of the mechanical engineering colossus CKD) and systematically built up its industrial empire. As the strongest bank in prewar Czechoslovakia, ZIBA controlled 60 companies, including the largest in the country. It also developed links with French and British financial institutions.